im so mad i just typed in one of my guesses that i typed in like 20 times before and the site came up.....i hope i won...but if the sites been up since wednesday then many people were ripped off....sorry Alliance and the projects, great contest but a dissapointing ending....again i am only saying this from rumors. Had fun though

I 110% had the correct answer - now they are saying the person had emailed prior (to the website being up) with the correct answer? As far as I'm concerned that's not the rules of the game. The rules were:

Start the code out with a www. and end it with a .com and this riddle or the middle will make up a website. The first person to go this site is the big Sesitec powered static line influenced System 2.0 winner.

So why would somebody have even tried to email alliance/ronix/sesitec with what they thought was the right answer? I thought I had the right answer too but it didn't pull up the website, so I figured it must have been wrong.

I'm not saying anything good or bad about the contest - I'm sure there will be a official announcement soon enough that will explain everything. Just doesn't make sense that the 'winning answer' was created after the last clue was given out. Anybody serious about winning would have been waiting for that final clue and submitting like mad to find the answer. I spent the better part of my tuesday trying websites!

completely agree with you, again not trying to be a sore loser but everytime I had a wrong answer I would mark it off, and I tried the site like 10 versions of the correct one including the correct one. electirpoweredarmorofexcitement.com
electricalpowerarmorofexcitement.com
electricalpoweredarmorofexcitement.com
etc.....
i hope it all turns out well, but emailing what they thought was the answer is pretty sketchy. Something is just a little fishy about that.

That really sucks if this is the case. Here is a screen shot of my web browser history from Monday, August 2 not 5 minutes after the last email clue was sent out showing me going to that URL www.electricpoweredarmorofexcitement.com. Like someone else said, this wasn't for a little prize and if that was the correct URL, Alliance should have had the website up at the beginning of the contest, not two days after the clue to the last word was sent out. I'm sure someone is stoked that they won, but I'd like to hear some more details from Alliance about what the correct URL was, when the website was online, and if the winner actually went to the website or if they emailed the answer.

Ya exactly! I'm sure there are many more than whom may be here on wakeworld talking about it. It wasn't CRAZY hard and with the first letter given, especially being a word starting with E, it was just a matter of plugging in any word that might fit.

I say at least consolation prizes should be handed out to those that can prove the correct url was in their browser history prior to Aug 4 when the website went live!! New 2011 Ronix One package perhaps?? lol!

Pretty big prize to screw up on it. I hope whomever gets it gets documented pretty good to prove this isn't a fix, and that person puts it to good use!

Those types of contests are dangerous from a legal standpoint. There are lawyers who review contests like that for a living. If everything isn't clean from a rules/execution standpoint they can get sticky. Let's hope this one gets sorted out.

i kinda shied away from the competition at first because i did not think my riddle solving skills were up for the challenge, but as stuey said it was not CRAZY hard and so i thought i had a chance. what the heck right? Funny thing is i actually started making it harder than it was. i started looking up european languages and translations thinking the week that they told the story about sesitec and it being a family run business in europe and stuff had an actual "clue" to it. i did all sorts of stuff to rack my brain more than needed.

I was right to think that i was not the only one. and i was right to think that others got it before me.

congrats guys

but unfortunately you could not just "be close" but you actually had to wait to throw those horse shoes after the stake was placed... with a blindfold on

the thing about e-mails?
"now they are saying the person had emailed prior (to the website being up) with the correct answer"

was that on twitter or something too?

I had twittered Alliance wake after they announced there was a winner. I also emailed everyone off the winning website... I did not get a response via email, but I did get a responce from Alliance via my twitter. Basically said 'if it makes you feel any better the first one to email us said he figured it out Monday' Just seems like bs.. what's stopping from somebody saying they had that guess last week before final clue? There is no legit way to solve this.

So there is an official announcement on alliancewake.com... I just don't buy their reasoning. Look at this part of the interview:

Quote:

How did you find the site so quickly after we put it up?

I had it figured it out Monday, and I was just checking it every hour. I knew I was right.

So you are telling me the winner figured it out Monday (very possible) then sat there on the computer every hour, for the next 48-60 hours trying the same URL?

Don't get me wrong. Awesome the dude won and sounds like he will put it to good use. I'm stoked for him.

But this excuse?

Quote:

our only option was to make sure that the site was entirely hidden until people had figured it out, hence not even registering the URL until Wed Aug 4th. The field was level and the winner was the one who was waiting with the right answer at the right time.

Why wait 2 days after you release the clue? To make a skill testing game that people have followed for months turn into a game of chance?

I don't know if others feel the same, but I'm pretty mad. Not that I didn't win, that I don't feel it was a fair way to run things.

Ok so i can understand why they would wait to register till later. like they said. to keep it hidden, but if that were the case they should have registered the site the moment the clue for the 5th word went up period! to wait hours, let alone more than a full day is Ridiculous. whats that part about getting the clue sent a day early by registering? and then somewhere they said "this is probably how the winner will get it" does that not imply that one would have essentially been able to get it pinned right even on monday?
I love all that wording in the statement on alliance that speaks to all those that complained. it makes it pretty obvious that many people called them out. sucks that some people went as far to pretend to be affiliates and stuff though. so i will say props to them in filtering that crap out

Congrats to Evan. glad it went to someone that has a setup (little lake) waiting for its use. Open it up and make a small business, make some small profit, and better yet spread the stoke of wakeboarding in your comunity

That really sucks if this is the case. Here is a screen shot of my web browser history from Monday, August 2 not 5 minutes after the last email clue was sent out showing me going to that URL www.electricpoweredarmorofexcitement.com. Like someone else said, this wasn't for a little prize and if that was the correct URL, Alliance should have had the website up at the beginning of the contest, not two days after the clue to the last word was sent out. I'm sure someone is stoked that they won, but I'd like to hear some more details from Alliance about what the correct URL was, when the website was online, and if the winner actually went to the website or if they emailed the answer.

Here's my browser history:

it doesnt have www, in front of it haha justkidding. they could have registered the name under a different company instead of using there own name.

It should have been active the second the final clue went out. To have done otherwise is unfair. I'm not sure what the repercussions are going to be especially if lawyers get involved. I have not seen any comments on the fact that the clue for 'of' was sketchy - it didn't say a WORD sounding similar to our white feathered flying friends, it said 'subtract the lowest passing grade from a NAME sounding similar.....' which is entirely incorrect. After I was unable to unlock the site Monday I did several domain name registry searches and my conclusion was that something was not right......

our only option was to make sure that the site was entirely hidden until people had figured it out, hence not even registering the URL until Wed Aug 4th. The field was level and the winner was the one who was waiting with the right answer at the right time.BULLSH?&*@#$ -NO ONE EVER SAID THERE WAS A WRONG TIME-WHEN IT DIDN'T WORK,I THOUGHT I HAD IT WRONG

yep kinda made it impossible to win fairly by delaying the website,why give clues to search for a site that doesn't exist? My instructions said nothing about emailing them the answer. Totally lame ass contest that I wasted weeks on for nothing. There should have been a site up from day one since thats what they claimed. By process of elimination,when excitement didn't work, I kept looking....hope someone does lawyer up

Tommy, you would actually endorse someone suing the most legit wakeboard magazine in print because they didn't run a contest perfect and you didn't win a very expensive prize? It sucks not to win, it sucks that the website wasn't up earlier, but think of the greater good. To threaten hundreds of people's livelihoods and the editorial enjoyment of thousands for the benefit of one is shameful.

I agree with you about the not suing part Big Heavy, but you also have to remember that for a big prize like this, things need to be kosher, which they clearly weren't. They even said in the competition that if you signed up for the day early thing, you were more likely to win because it gives you the clue ahead of the people who are competing via just the websites. Basically, they screwed the pooch big on this one, and it's not fair to people like Andrew Moreton who guessed the correct answer before they put the website up. This instantly told him that that answer was wrong, so he started trying different ones.

Alliance and Ronix messed this one up, but suing them is a very counterproductive way to participate in the sport of wakeboarding...

This is brutal! Pretty much a **** contest. My wife and I (as others I'm sure) took many hours of our time working on the contest. We also had the correct answer (July 26) and we feel pretty cheated now.
Congrats the winner though!

YOU ARE ALL SORE LOSERS, if you read through the interview with him he did the same thing as all of you, he had the right answer early, but it wasn't up, so he kept going back over and over knowing he had it right. He just got lucky and had good timing. Nobody said your answer was wrong it just wasn't up yet, why didn't you keep trying again and again like him? or you are full of it and didn't have it and now are just mad, let it go, YOU LOST. Stop all this crying and move on, be happy for the kid who did win. I didn't win, but ah-well, I am pumped for him, Congrats Man! I think it was a good contest, it was hard as hell, those clues were crazy to me, but it kept me interested, it kept me going to their websites and looking and reading for more answers. It was one of the biggest prizes that has been giving away in wakebparding, I think it was all really awsome. Good job Alliance and Ronix.

You are aware that not having the website up the entire time made it a moot point to tell people to sign up via email or what not. Them saying that meant that it would be up the entire time. Which in turn means that if you got it wrong, then, well, you went to the next option. Inherently the contest was flawed. I personally don't care because I wasn't even close to figuring it out, but for those who did figure it out, it shouldn't have been a game of luck, it was supposed to be a game of skill.

also thought the situation was crappy. I typed the right site in almost immediatley after reading the last e-mail. and the spent 2 hours trying every variation I could think of. But.... I feel a little better cuz I won the 2010 Obscura SST form boardco.com. just came in. can't wait for a chance to ride it

if someone was bold enough... had just a bit more of that "insistive persistance" (i'm going to call it) that Evan (the winner) had to actually create and register the very site before alliance/ronix/sesitec did.